Blood Of The Dragon
by skyclaw441
Summary: What happens when the Master Emerald is stolen in an unprecedented manner, and Rouge joins Knuckles to get it back? Knouge, citrus of some kind later on. Rated T for now, possibly changing to M later.
1. A Rude Awakening

Well, I promised a Knouge, and I delivered. But it sure wasn't easy wracking my brain for ideas I didn't have for a week. Finally, I just decided to wing it while listening to music, and I hoped for the best.

Blood of the Dragon

skyclaw441

Knuckles yawned as he stretched his arms and awoke from a restful night's sleep. He sat up on the bed.

'What a good night's sleep!' Knuckles thought. 'And this bed feels... wait a second. BED?!' he mentally shouted. He sat up and looked around. He was in a rather tidy apartment living room, on a couch bed. He jolted from the bed and stood up to survey his surroundings. It was still night outside, as he couldn't see much through the thin curtains covering the large bay window, but small amounts of blue light were coming in from the dawn. The room was tidy and dark. It had quite a few nice looking bamboo-like plants growing in pots in the corners of the room. There was a bookshelf with various books and pictures against the wall next to the door, and it led straight without interuption into a kitchen and dining area.

"Where the hell am I?" he asked out loud. It wasn't but five seconds until someone gave him an answer.

"Glad to see someone's awake," Rouge smirked as she walked out of her bedroom, already dressed. She flipped on the light, and he was able to see everything a lot better. It didn't take long for him to put the pieces together in order to figure out where he was.

"What the hell am I doing here?" Knucles asked her angrily.

"You just ask your arm that question," Rouge replied. Knuckles looked down at his arm, which was wrapped in bandages.

"OK, where is the Emerald?!" Knuckles asked loudly and angrily, about ready to pulverize Rouge.

"Well, it kinda went flying into the bushes when I knocked you into near oblivion. I took you home, wrapped your arm where I hit you, gave you some extra pain killer, and you went sleepy." Rouge explained.

"Oh yeah, in the bushes. And you took me home and "cared for me" rather than taking the Emerald. Believable story." Knuckles confronted.

"Hey, some people care about certain other people." Rouge replied. "Don't worry, some villagers are watching the Emerald now."

"Oh, well... AH!" Knuckles groaned as a collosal headache hit him. "I'm going to need to lay down some more, I've got this splitting headache."

"Sounds about right," Rouge replied. "You took a bad hit. Anyway, I'm gonna make some coffee. Want some?" Rouge asked him as she walked over to the coffeepot. "God, I hate mornings," she remarked randomly.

"Hey, when did you start to be so nice?" Knuckles jeered.

"Aw, Knuxie. You're just too hardheaded. Just lay down and rest." Rouge replied cutely.

"I may just do that now," Knuckles replied, putting his hand to his forehead. The nickname "Knuxie" made his headache increase twofold. He slumped back into the couch bed and began to relax.

"I'll leave my cell number on the counter, call me when you wake up," she told him playfully. Knuckles tried to ignore her, and he soon fell asleep.

--

"You're WHERE?!" Tails asked loudly, nearly blowing Knuckles's eardrums out.

"OW! Watch it, kid!" Knuckles replied. "Anyway, I'm at... well... I'm kinda..." Knuckles began to reply embarrasingly.

"C'mon! Where are you!?" Tails began to ask again, getting more annoying and irritating each time he asked that.

"I'm at Rouge's apartment, OK!" Knuckles shouted, nearly tripping over his tounge out of embarrasment.

"Bwahahaha!" Tails began to laugh out loud. "Sonic! Come here!" Tails shouted to Sonic.

'Fuck!...' Knuckles thought. Sonic was the last one he wanted to talk to in this situation, knowing the assumptions of things getting heavy would be abound and there would be no end to the questions and snide remarks. Before he knew it, Sonic was flapping his yap.

"So, heavy night last night?" Sonic asked between snickers.

"Only my head this morning," Knucles replied.

"Well, you should know better than to go that long! So, did you?" Sonic replied, egging Knuckles on.

"Hell no! The only reason I'm here is my arm, or so I think." Knuckles replied.

"Yea, and your third leg must have had something wrong too..." Sonic suggested. Knuckles had expected that this was coming.

"Well, this is the way she explained it. We were fighting last night over the Emerald, and she knocked me in the arm, knocking the Emerald loose, and I flew some distance before landing on my head. She flew me home, and hired some villagers to guard the Emerald. She gave me some painkillers somehow in my unconciousness, and bandaged my arm. I had a terrible headache this morning." Knuckles told him.

"Check around the house to see if alcohol was the painkiller of choice. If so, you may have lost some fruit, if you know what I mean..." Sonic again suggested.

"Oh, yeah right. I didn't know I could even get it up passed out." Knuckles replied.

"Oh yeah? How do you think rape occurs in males then?" Sonic asked. Knuckles thought for a second, before getting some ideas he didn't even know he was capable of having.

"Oh, shut up Sonic. I now have mental images that I don't want to have." Knuckles shouted, now quite annoyed.

"So, give me a ring if you need to be picked up. You know, when you're done..." Sonic incinuated.

"You say another thing and I'll come over to your house and make sure that you're done!" Knuckles shouted.

"Jeez man, I'm just messing with you." Sonic replied. "Well, give me a call, talk to you later." Sonic told him.

"Later." Knuckles replied, and he hung up the phone. He slumped at the counter, his arm now in quite a bit of pain. At least his headache went away. It was about 11 AM, and the sun was shining brightly through the bay window into the apartment, giving it a pleasant glow. His main thought was to get back to the island as soon as possible to go guard the Emerald, which he wasn't sure was there anymore. He noticed something on the counter. It was Rouge's number. He decided to call it, against what he thought were his better instincts.

"Hiya, Knux," Rouge answered playfully. Knuckles faceplamed, and then mustered the courage to talk.

"Stop calling me that," he told her in response.

"Oh, sorry." Rouge replied. "So, what did you need?"

"Where are those painkillers? My arm is killing me," Knuckles replied.

"They're above the cupboard above the stove." Rouge replied. Knuckles walked over to the stove, looked above the cupboard, and was instantly horrified.

"WHAT... DID... YOU... DO... TO... ME... LAST... NIGHT!" Knuckles shouted horrified.

"You were already unconcious, don't worry, Knux." Her reply came in her usual playful/seductive tone, pissng Knuckles off even more.

"I SWEAR TO GOD! IF YOU HAD YOUR WAY WITH ME YOU'RE GONNA GET IT!" Knuckles shouted.

"Relax, it was only one shot. Ya know, to numb what was hurting you."

"ONLY ONE SHOT?" Knuckles yelled back. "I've never drunk in my life!" Knuckles replied.

"Wow, you're lame. No wonder you're so uptight when watching the emerald." Rouge replied.

"Well..." Knuckles began, but he was quickly interupted.

"Hang on a sec, I'm getting another call." Rouge replied.

"Alright." Knuckles replied, setting the phone on the counter.

'What the heck is she doing to me?' Knuckles thought. It sure wasn't believable that she would do this without the benefits of sex or jewels. If not sex, jewels. If not jewels, sex. He determined that it was most likely sex in this situation, due to the fact that the pain killer administered to him was a shot of 100 proof Stolichnaya vodka. But he was still even unconcious, so Rouge didn't even need to give him alcohol. So why would she bother anyway? She could still have sex with him. She could have even picked up the Emerald before she left. But why would she do this? Knuckles sighed and drifted at the sight of the harbor outside of her bay window. Before he knew it, Rouge was screaming into the phone.

"Knux? KNUCKLES!" She shouted into the phone. He jumped at the sound, now out of his trance.

"Sorry, what is it?" Knuckles replied as cool as he could.

"They need you down at the island right away!" Rouge told him, a little riled up.

"Lemme guess, you took the Emerald. No surprise." Knuckles replied. "I'll just be looking around for it."

"No, not that. The shrine, it's been totally wiped out!" Knuckles shot up from his seat.

"IT'S WHAT!?"

"You heard me."

"I'm going. See ya." Knuckles began to panic. This time it wasn't just the emerald, it was the whole shrine with it. Adrenaline shot through his body.

"NO!" Rouge shouted in the phone. "Stay where you are, I'm coming to pick you up." Rouge told him.

"Why the hell do you care?" Knuckles replied snidely.

"Have you not known me these past few years? If there's something up with the Emerald, I'll want to know what it is." Rouge replied.

"That's true." Knuckles pointed out. "So..."

"I'll be there in a couple minutes. Don't worry." Rouge told him.

"Alright." Knuckles replied as he hung up the phone. He paced around as he waited, worried about what would have happened to the Emerald, and who would have it now. The Emerald was his life, given to him by his father to guard until his son would take over. It was his duty, and his obligation, and the only thing he knew. He was in a near frenzy, running circles around the open living room. There was a knock on the door. It opened.

"Well, I see you're taking this well," Rouge remarked.

"Oh, yea. This is the best news I've gotten all day!" Knuckles replied sarcastically as they both walked onto the patio. "Well, I need to get back to the Island."

"Well, then. How bout I just fly you down?" Rouge replied playfully, getting down on all fours.

"Oh, sure. Since when have you cared?" Knuckles replied.

"Like I said before, you're just too hard-headed. Now hop on," she replied playfully.

"Fine." Knuckles replied. He couldn't help but blush as he hopped on Rouge's back. 'Damn, her fur feels nice'. He commented in his head. Before he knew it, they were off and flying.

--

Yup. There it is. Sorry for the shitty ending. I never bothered to watch the cartoon, so I just studied the characters through fanfics. So, I know I went out of character a couple times, and I only spent a day writing this, just to get it out. This is also my first fic with this pairing, so I haven't had a lot of experience with them. Unlike Ash and Misty, which I have been following for the better part of five years. So, review and make some suggestions, anything helps. I know that the Knouge didn't hit off right away, but it's coming. Thanks for reading my very crappy story.


	2. The Team Up

This has been through about three rewrites as manuscripts in my notebook from school. This was a really hard chapter to write. But, I finally took it in the right direction, and it ended up OK. Just so you know, I never like to say that any of my works are good. Then I feel like that because I said that, I'm being pompous or arrogant. So, I guess I should start now, huh? I really don't like to keep people by rambling. So, here you go:

Blood Of The Dragon

Chapter 2

skyclaw441

--

The day was bright and blue outside, the sun warm. Flying never felt so good to Rouge. This was quite possibly the only time she'd ever have Knuxie so close. Well, at will anyway. She couldn't help it, but she liked him so much. He was too adorable. She loved the way he surrounded her hips from behind with his legs, crossing them tightly in front. His arms were wrapped around her chest. He was hanging on for dear life, but he did so seductively. Rouge had to keep cool, though. That is, if she was going to make a safe landing on the island.

Knuckles blushed as he hung on. He wrapped himself over Rouge, blushing red as his fur every time he fidgeted to readjust his position or grip. He wondered if it would be appropriate to call his "Flight 69". But, to be honest, underneath the awkward expression on his face and his racing heart, he liked it. But, he had to concentrate on the emerald.

_What if she was hiding a piece of it in her big bulky breastplate?_, he thought to himself. _She could even be hiding the piece in between her boobs._ He chewed his lip for a second, and then snuck his hand downward. _Better be safe._

Rouge sighed in ecstasy briefly as a hand wandered into her plate, but then realized who was doing it. "Knuckles, what are you?..." Knuckles got real embarrassed, real fast.

"Gwa!" His arms and hands instinctively let go of her. A bad instinct to have at an altitude of several thousand feet. He began freefall.

"You idiot!" Rouge shouted as she streamlined her body in a dive. She skillfully swooped under Knuckles, and he landed on her back. "What the hell was that?" she shouted.

"I was... I though... you... emerald piece... breastplate..." Knuckles gasped between breaths, still recovering from the shock of nearly falling to death. Rouge looked back at him.

"I should have let you fall," she commented as she dipped downward. Knuckles shouted as he hung on tightly in panic. Rouge resumed her normal altitude and position. "Haha, you're so cute when you're scared, Knuxie".

He hated it, he really did. He really hated it when people screwed with him, and she was no exception to the rule. Why hadn't she just taken the emerald while he was asleep or knocked out? It would have made the job a lot easier. But instead, she took him back to her place, bandaged me, and gave him alcohol. She probably then raped him and went back for the emerald. Had Rouge told him the truth after all? But why, how could she? She was just so weird sometimes. Man, Sonic was really going to run his mouth about this when he was to call him later.

"Hey, where's the island?" Knuckles asked. "We should be there by now."

"I don't know..." Rouge replied. "Did I go the wrong way?" she asked.

"I don't think so." Knuckles replied.

"Well then where is it?" Rouge asked. Knuckles scanned the skies for the island. It wasn't anywhere. The levitating island was nowhere in sight.

"Well, if it's not here, then maybe we missed by a few miles..." Knuckles replied uneasily.

"Hey? What's that island down there?" Rouge asked as she pointed downward. "I've never seen that one before." Knuckles eyes widened and his jaw dropped in horror at what he saw below.

"Rouge... I think we've found the island." Knuckles replied.

"Oh my God..." she gaped. The island had fallen out of the sky and into the ocean, a sure sign that the emerald was gone. The island's surface was riddled with fissures and cracks, and emitted smoke. Part of it had broken off altogether and was likely submerged somewhere nearby. All that was recognizable were some stones laying in the center, the remains of what had been the temple. The two were speechless. Rouge and Knuckles hovered above the spectacle.

"No..." Knuckles whispered under his breath.

"Well, I think we should go in for a closer look, whaddya say, Knuxie? Knux? Knuckles?" Rouge asked. He had fainted on her back. 'He's adorable that way...' she thought before she swooped in on the island. "Freaking idiot..."

--

Rouge and Knuckles touched down on the island. It looked like an atomic bomb went off. The village was completely wiped out, and not one survivor, let alone body, was seen. It was as if the village had fallen into the ocean. The ground was in cracks and fissures several feel wide, and fire and smoke spewed between the deepest cracks. Steam rose from there the water met with the hot earth. The jungles of the island were laying completely flattened, and scorched in some spots. The seas were turbulent around the island, the waves battering and smashing the coast in huge waves. And in the center of the island lay the flattened Temple of the Master Emerald. The two were at a complete lack of words. They simply stared at what happened until Knuckles finally shouted.

"YOU WHORE! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! THIS IS ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT!" Knuckles screamed. Rouge quickly silenced him with a jab to the face.

"Oh really? Why is that? Do you think this is going to fix anything!?" Rouge yelled back. Knuckles held his cheek in pain.

"Well, had you not knocked me out, taken me home, given me alcohol, and had sex with me, NONE OF THIS WOULD BE HAPPENING. I'd be laying on the stairs, and the Emerald would be safe." Knuckles yelled.

"You honestly think that you could have stopped this? Look around you!" Rouge shouted. Knuckles swallowed hard and did so. She was right. There was no way in hell he could have stopped all of this, and would likely have been among the victims. Every emotion on the negative end of the spectrum hit him that instant. He broke down. He'd never cried before, much less in front of your opponent, and that was a mandatory rule of war not to. But now he had to fight a new war. Rouge embraced him, and led him over to a fallen tree near where they had landed. His eyes were too busy buried in her shoulder to even worry about where he was going. He had nowhere left to go without the emerald. She let him go. Rouge sat beside him, watching the tears stream down his face and eventually stop.

She didn't want to admit it, but she was sad and angry inside. Not only because she had not gotten a chance to steal the emerald, but because she felt for Knuckles. For some reason, she felt hurt when he was hurt in the battle the previous day. She felt scared when the shrine had supposedly been swamped. And now, she was sad like him. 'Pull it together girl!' she thought to herself. She couldn't let herself get too concerned about whatever it was about Knuckles. It was about the emerald, and it was like that from day one. But, something was strange. She wanted to owe it up to Knuckles for what happened. "I'll help you."

"Oh shut up, you've helped enough. Just go away. Just go away and die." he told her, beginning to seethe in anger.

"Knux, babe, I care about you..." she began. This touched a serious nerve of Knuckles's. "I want to help you find the emerald. Why do you think that I bandaged you up and cared for you? Because I care. Now, I want to help you look for this thing. Lord knows what the person who has it will do," she told him. Knuckles looked up quietly.

"You really would?" he asked.

"Of course, Knuxie," she told him. "Hey, it's the emerald, how can I not?" she asked as she winked. Knuckles smiled.

"Yea..." he replied.

"Well, I guess the first course of action would be to check out the temple to see what happened there." Rouge said, standing up. "See if they left any prints or dust behind. Perhaps their aircraft made a fuel leak."

"Yea, or maybe-" Knuckles was interrupted by the sound of plastic under his feet. He looked down to see the most wonderful artifact to have survived. Of all of things that could have survived, this was the greatest thing out of them all. "Wait! Look at what I found!" Knuckles exclaimed as he lifted up a camcorder, still functioning and even taping. He pointed the camera at Rouge. "Smile!" Rouge did a seductive pose. Knuckles rolled his eyes. "In any case, the attack may have been caught on tape this way."

"Well, let's go home and check it out!" Rouge exclaimed. "And while we're at that, maybe when we're done..." she began in her trademark seductive tone. Knuckles started to get angry again. "I'm just messing with you, Knuxie! You're way too hardheaded, you need to relax!" she told him.

"Sure..." he replied. He still really hated it when she screwed with him and called him Knuxie.

"Now hop on." Rouge told him. And once again, they were off

--

Lord, that sucked! I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote this, but the lack of sleep may have explained it. I'm way out of character, I know. I still haven't seen the cartoon, so give me a break! Well, I've pretty much ruined the whole damn story now, but I'll keep it up. So, anyway, keep looking for new stuff from me, whenever I'm not stressed over music and homework. Catch you later, stay tuned.


	3. Caught on Tape

Well, I'm under a lot of stress lately. I'm working on a lot of new music, homework, etc. So, I decided to write this, as a method of recovering from the disappointment that was "Poetry", my latest AAML oneshot. It's the least successful out of my four oneshots I've done, coming in at just over 100 views. Anyway, I got mainly positive reviews. I've been really stuck on Missing You BaBy's fourth chapter. So, I decided to just write this and hope for the best. So, here I go.

--

Blood Of The Dragon: Chapter 03

Knuckles took a sip of a shot of vodka and set it back down on the counter. "Hm. This doesn't taste too bad. I sorta like it," he commented.

"See, I told you that one shot wasn't going to do anything to you!" Rouge scoffed as she downed the rest of the shot in one foul gulp and set the glass in the sink. Knuckles widened his eyes.

"Wow... you... uh..." he stuttered, searching for an appropriate phrase.

"I'm skilled," Rouge winked.

"Yea, sure..." he replied as he stood up.

"Feeling woozy?" Rouge asked in her usual seductive tone as he stood up. Knuckles rolled his eyes.

"Oh, shut up," he replied. Rouge laughed.

"I can't help it, I just like to mess with you," Rouge replied. Knuckles shook his head lightly in disdain, and then walked over to the living room to get the camcorder from the coffee table. _Why is she always being so damn playful?_ Knuckles asked himself. Rouge stood behind the counter, leaning on it. "So, where are you going to stay?" she asked.

"Ugh, I don't know..." he replied. "I could ask to stay with Sonic, but he wears on my nerves sometimes," he replied.

"Why don't you stay here?" Rouge suggested.

"As if you're much better," he replied. "We go from mortal enemies to roommates in one day. How exactly does this work?" Knuckles asked as he kneeled in front of the TV set to hook the camcorder into the AV ports.

"Well, think of it as a peace treaty," she suggested. "C'mon, Knuxie, it'll be fun."

"Oh yeah, sure," he replied as he plugged the last cable into the TV, and hooked the other end into the corresponding A/V out port in the camcorder. "I guess that depends on how many more shots of vodka you're planning to put into me." Rouge laughed.

"Is what's fun for me fun for you, Knuxie?"

"I don't know, but I think watching this tape should be fun," Knuckles replied as he turned on the TV and turned it to the input channel. Rouge took a seat on the couch, and Knuckles flipped on the camcorder.

"Well, let's hope this has some record of the attack," Rouge commented.

"It had better, or we're down to square one," Knuckles replied. "Well, here goes nothing," Knuckles announced as he pressed the play button on the camcorder's screen interface. The screen remained blue as Knuckles backed up to join Rouge on the couch. They waited a few seconds.

"Is there even anything on this tape?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, maybe the data was destroyed or damaged in the attack," Rouge suggested.

"Well, we're pretty much screwed-" Knuckles began, but was interrupted at the sound of a drum beat intro, and video soon appeared on the screen. A red haired man began dancing to a 80's style synth pop song. Knuckles and Rouge looked at the screen inquisitively.

"Um, what IS this?" Rouge asked.

"I don't know..." Knuckles replied.

"Well, I think I've heard this song somewhere before on the internet or somewhere around the office. Rick... Rick something. Whatever it is, it's catchy," Rouge replied as she began bobbing her head to the beat. Knuckles stared at the screen aghast.

"What IS this?"

"Oh yeah, I think it's Rick Rolled!" she realized.

"Great, the only remaining item from the island was the Rick Roll? Whatever it's called?" Knuckles asked. "Well, not only have we been screwed over, we've been screwed over with this annoying song!" he exclaimed, now quite irritated.

"I like it," Rouge said, beginning to sing along. "Never gonna give you up... never gonna let you down..." Knuckles facepalmed.

"What kind of joke is this?" Knuckles asked. As he finished, the music video was interrupted by new footage written over the tape of the Rick Roll. "How did you even know the words?"

"Shh! Shh!" Rouge shouted as the tape recording came in. The scenes were frightening.

It started with shaky camera montage, as if the recorder was running. The screams of people and a strange hisses and roars filled the tape. Villagers were seen running to the forests, hiding in logs, and setting fires. The temple loomed straight ahead. The camera angle panned to the sides to show villagers jumping to their deaths from the island's airborne coasts, plunging miles to the ocean, dying before even reaching the ground. People ran for the cover of the temple. Others ran against the camera man's path, attempting to get to the village behind. Others hopped into airplanes, but failed to start them properly, and all crashed into the forests. As the cameraman neared the temple, a large shadow overcame the temple. Seeing a log, the cameraman put the camera backwards showing himself and the attackers behind him. The cameraman ran off camera, to reveal that was ransacking the island.

Giant spiders. Like something out of _Eight Legged Freaks_. Their grotesque details, every brown-red hair on their body could be seen, giant fangs, a set of eight tiny, dog-like eyes. Their legs towered over trees, and reached toward unimaginable heights. Rouge nearly had a heart attack over fear of them.

"AAAH! God!" she screamed as she jumped nearly two feet out of her seat, and then grabbed a hold of Knuckles. Knuckles just sat in awe as he could hear the crashing of the temple. The camera was knocked by something, and was turned around to reveal the emerald being hauled away on the back of one of the spiders, in a turquoise-colored web, and the temple come crashing down into it's own center. A spider stamped and trampled the temple into it's own hole in the ground. The spiders then turned on the people, scooping them with their legs and depositing them into the hole, and crushing them with stones, burying them alive. Villagers screamed as the spiders bit them with full force and snapped them in two. The spiders then cleaned up the remaining bodies, threw them in the hole, and covered them with the last of stones among the other villagers and then left the view. All was peaceful. A loud whirring was heard, and the island began it's fall. Gently, gently falling into the ocean. The spiders space craft could be seen in a distant angle of the camera's view, lifting off ever so slowly as to do minimal damage to the island's structure itself, and as not to cause a mega tsunami in the process. The camera slowly started to show the decent.

"Well, Rouge, I think we have something," he commented as he turned to look at her. She was slumped over. "Rouge?" She'd fainted.

--

"DEAR GOD, I hate spiders..." Rouge murmured into a glass of Merlot. Knuckles looked over at her from the couch, reviewing the tape, writing information down on a writing pad. "Can I look now?"

"Not quite yet..." Knuckles responded as he finished jotting down the characteristics of the spiders and the webs. He flicked his pen with the last letter of his notes. "Done," he told Rouge as he turned off the camcorder.

"Dear God, I hate spiders..." she again muttered.

"Yes, I know. This is about the millionth time you've told me," Knuckles replied as he slumped into a seat beside Rouge at the counter.

"OK, so what have we got?" she asked.

"Well, it looks like the spiders are roughly fifty feet tall, have the characteristics of the tarantulas. They are red-brown in color, and their eyes are small in relative proportions to their heads. Their fangs are rather large, I noticed, and are an ivory color," Knuckles reviewed.

"Don't remind me..." Rouge told him.

"Hey, aren't you the invincible Rouge? Not afraid of anything, a master thief?" Knuckles asked.

"Looks like the pot is calling the kettle black. Aren't you supposed to be the invincible guardian of the emerald?" she winked. Knuckles gave her a slightly angry look. Rouge took another sip of wine. "Anyway..."

"Well, the webs are a turquoise color, and they seem to pulse with light. The spiders then hauled it away," Knuckles reviewed on the spiders.

"Well, at least we know who stole it. Giant freak spi- spi- spiders." Rouge stammered.

"Will you get over yourself? Had I known you were afraid of spiders, I would have just thrown one of the good old Angel Island Tarantulas at you. Those things are almost a foot wide," Knuckles commented.

"Well, I was never scared of spiders until now," Rouge commented. "When this is all over, at least you know my new weakness," she winked. "You want some?" Rouge asked as she offered the glass of wine to Knuckles.

"No... thank you," he commented as he turned his head away. "So, what do we do now with all of this information?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, we could-" Rouge began, but was interrupted by the phone. She got up from her seat and walked to the handset at where the counter met the wall, and looked at the caller ID.

"Who is it?" Knuckles asked.

"Oh Christ, it's work. I'm probably going to get shafted by the boss tomorrow because I left early today," Rouge said.

"Ah, BOHICA, huh?" Knuckles asked.

"You've got that right," she said as she picked up the phone and answered it. "Rouge here." Knuckles stared off into space as she began the conversation on the phone.

_How in the hell did this happen? _Knuckles asked himself as he put his head to his hand. _I leave the island for eight goddamn hours and the whole place goes down, and the Emerald is taken by giant freak spiders from God-knows-what planet. _It'd been his obligation, his life duty, everything to him was that emerald. Now it was gone. At least his feelings of self-fault and blame on Rouge had been diminished by seeing what had happened to the island. He knew he couldn't single-handedly stop an army of 50-foot spiders coming to take the emerald. Speaking of spiders, what was up with those things? It seemed a little suspicious that spiders could have the intelligence to come and steal the Master Emerald. Were they trying to create a race of super-spider the likes of which Universe had never seen? Only God knew what could they could want with it. Knuckles's attention snapped back to Rouge's phone call when he heard his name come up.

"Yea, I have someone working on it with me already. His name is Knuckles. Yes, that Knuckles. We've already been there, and we have important... evidence that I think we should show you. Yes, we're working together on this one, and I'd say he's doing pretty damn good for a first time. OK, I'll bring him in tomorrow. What time. Six, OK. Right, thank you. Goodbye," she said as she hung up the phone.

"Hey, who was that, and why were you talking about me?" Knuckles inquired.

"Well, it was my work, and they wanted me to take this case. I told them that I was already on it with you, and that we'd gathered some evidence on the case, and that it was important they saw it. So, they decided to call us in for a meeting," Rouge explained.

"Oh," Knuckles replied. "Well, when is the meeting?"

"Tomorrow morning... at SIX!" Rouge exclaimed. "You know how much I hate mornings by now, this is really gonna suck." Knuckles looked over at the clock. It was already 11:30.

"Well, I suggest we get to bed then," Knuckles suggested.

"Do you want the couch bed, or do you wanna sleep with me?" she winked, speaking in a seductive tone. Knuckles rolled his eyes, about giving her a death glare.

"The couch bed... PLEASE," Knuckles replied.

"I know, I know. As IF you'll ever get to my bed," she again said in a sensual tone. "Well, we're gonna have to wake up at 4:30 tomorrow, then. God, I'm going to hate that."

"Well, alright. You do know how to wake me up, right?" Knuckles asked.

"Yup. I tell you that I'm going to steal the Master Emerald," she replied.

"Good. Well, I'll go pull out the bed and crash. I think you should, too," Knuckles suggested.

"Alright," she replied. "Hey, do want another shot of painkillers before you go to bed?" Rouge asked.

"I think I'm fine..." Knuckles replied as he proceeded to remove the cushions from the couch and move the coffee table.

"Well, alright. I'll see you in the morning, Knuxie," she winked as she stepped inside her bedroom. Knuckles groaned with disdain and pulled out the bed. He picked up the blanket in a chair next to the couch that had been on top of him that morning, and covered the bed with it. Grabbing a couple of pillows that had been on the couch, he settled himself into bed. He then grumbled, and got out of bed. He stumbled over to the wall next to the counter, and flipped off the lights. He then found his way back to his bed, the dim lights of the harbor and the moon guiding him. He lay down, and covered himself.

_So much better than the hard floor of the shrine. This thing is so comfy._ Knuckles thought to himself. Man, what had been up with him earlier today. Under no normal circumstance would he ever reach down Rouge's breastplate, yet he did it today, looking for a piece of the emerald. That wasn't even plausible, now that he was thinking fairly straightly. But why did she play with him so much? Why did she just mess around and screw around with his mind, and then proceed to tell him that she cared. She even used the word "babe", which is pretty affectionate when it comes to Rouge. Did she like him more than he originally thought? _Ah, no matter_, he decided. He then looked up at the ceiling, and let sleep overtake him.

--

Well, that was semi-decent. I hope I can continue this story OK, as I finally have an idea for Missing You BaBy, so maybe that's not such a doomed, sinking ship like it was originally. Well, I'll have to check it later. Please review, as I appreciate any feedback I can get, negative or positive. Let me know what you think. Well, I'm off to bed now, after I do some homework. Grr... Well, here's to hoping Obama will do well on the election in my country, as the election is 18-nail biting days away. I'll check you all later.


	4. Day Two

Ugh... October's been a rough month with my creative energies. I'll have a whole bunch of time on my hands after the election, so that'll give more chances to write, when I'm not totally engrossed in other things. Anyway, I offer my premature congratulations to John McCain. I've given up on any hope that Obama can win. There's just no way in hell. Anyway, you came for the fanfiction, not a political analysis. So, here we go with chapter four of "Blood Of The Dragon". Keeping in mind that I've never seen the cartoon, I think I'm doing decently. Better than Eve's Warning, which I'm up to my eyeballs in revising, and Missing You BaBy, which I'm just having a really rough time continuing. So, without further ado...

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Blood Of The Dragon: Chapter 04

skyclaw441

Knuckles's eyes slowly opened. His blurred vision became normal again. He was in a dim, dark room. He saw a white, popcorn ceiling, and not the night sky. And he was on a bed (and a comfy one at that.) It took him a second before he came to terms with his environment. Oh yeah, he was in Rouge's apartment living room on a couch bed. It all began crashing on him like a tsunami. The emerald, the spiders, that awful song, etc., etc.

"Oh, God..." Knuckles whispered as he rolled over to try to go to sleep again. He closed his eyes and started to fall back into unconsciousness. Maybe he would wake up, be back on the island, and everything would be OK again if he could just wake up from this awful dream. Something gave slight pressure on his shoulder, and there was a seductive whisper.

"Knuckles... *giggle*".

"Oh, God..." Knuckles groaned as he sat up and looked to see Rouge giving him a smirk. She burst out laughing. "Let me go back to sleep!" he shouted as he threw his torso back onto the bed.

"You can't, we have a meeting this morning," Rouge told him.

"Not we, you!" Knuckles shouted as he covered his face with a pillow and rolled over onto his side again.

"I'm stealing the Master Emerald!" Rouge shouted. Knuckles kicked into overdrive automatically on command. He jumped up onto the bed, in full battle pose.

"No you're... wait..." Knuckles said disdainfully. "Dammit Rouge!" he shouted as she giggled.

"Well, you said it'd work," Rouge replied.

"Yes I did..." Knuckles muttered quietly as he stepped off the bed and stretched briefly. "Nice to see that you're awake."

"Not really." she replied.

"Hey, what time is it?" Knuckles asked as he looked around. It was pitch-dark outside, still before dawn. All of the night lights of the harbor still illuminated with their beautiful hues.

"Last I checked, about four. That gives us an hour to get ready." Rouge replied.

"Four? The meeting's at six!" Knuckles replied.

"I know, takes us an hour to get there," Rouge replied.

"An hour? How far away could it be? You're a freaking bat, you can fly!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"We have to go incognito, I'm a thief, I can't just fly around over the city," she told him.

"Well, you seem to do that when going to the island everyday," Knuckles replied.

"Well, that's a straight shot out over the harbor and out of the city. The government offices are in the center of the city, and it's an hour's worth of heavy traffic."

"Wait, you drive?" Knuckles asked, surprised.

"Yea. My car's in the lot." Rouge replied.

"Well, alright then..." Knuckles replied as he made his way through the dark living room to the kitchen counter, cautiously, as not to bump into anything. That venture was not successful, though, as he proceeded to hit his shin on the coffee table.

"Ouch!" Knuckles replied as he hopped up and down on one leg, holding his afflicted shin. Rouge laughed, then flipped on the lights.

"Thought you might need that..." she told him as she gave a few last giggles. Knuckles hobbled on his leg, and slumped down at the countertop. He yawned, and put his head in his arms, making a half-assed attempt to fall asleep again. "Don't fall asleep!" Rouge shouted.

"Uuuuuggghhhh..." Knuckles groaned as he lifted his head up.

"You look like you're in dire need of coffee," Rouge told him.

"Coffee? I've only had that once, doesn't it taste like crap?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, that depends. Want some?" she asked.

"No..." Knuckles replied, his head slumping again.

"OK, you're having some," Rouge commanded as she quickly pulled a mug out of the cupboard and poured coffee for Knuckles. She set it on the counter. "Drink this." Knuckles looked at the cup, picked it up, and carefully took a sip. He spit it out.

"Knuckles!" Rouge shouted.

"That tastes disgusting!" Knuckles exclaimed as he wiped his mouth.

"Well don't spit it out, now I've got to clean it up!" she shouted as she took out a cleaning wipe.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" he asked.

"Uh... swallow it!" she told him, in a tone that screamed 'hello, captain obvious!', as she cleaned up the coffee.

"But it tastes awful!" Knuckles replied.

"Well, just don't spit it out." Rouge told him as she threw away the wipe. "Take a drink, and this time, swallow it!" Knuckles brought his lips to the cup again, and he struggled to swallow.

"This is the most bitter thing I've ever tasted," he said, then sticking out his tongue slightly.

"Well, are you awake yet?" Rouge asked.

"No..." Knuckles replied. "Wait, can't you add something to this to make it taste better?" Knuckles asked. Rouge's mind snapped at the idea.

"Sugar! Of course, why didn't I think of that?" she asked as she pulled sugar out from another cupboard. She took the cup from Knuckles and added a couple spoonfuls and stirred it in. She handed it back to Knuckles. "It should taste better now."

Knuckles took a sip, then a bigger one, then a gulp, and he then finished the whole cup in one foul guzzle. Rouge's eyes widened. "Wow, that was good."

"Told you," Rouge smiled smugly.

"No, I told you. Weren't you the one who needed the suggestion from me?" he asked with a smirk on his face.

"Ah, whatever. You'll be bouncing off the walls in a couple seconds," Rouge told him.

"Yea, sure," he replied, getting up from the counter. "Well, what will this meeting entail?" he asked.

"Well, we should dress nicely," Rouge told him. "I have a spare suit in my closet, because all of your clothes are gone with the temple."

"Thanks..." Knuckles initially thanked her, but then something clicked in his head. "Why the hell do you...?"

"That's none of your business!" she snapped. "Now, I'll go get the suit, and I'll let you use the shower in the guest bathroom. There's soap and shampoo in there," she told him as she walked into her bedroom.

_Damn, what the hell is with her?_ Knuckles thought. _One second she's playful, next she's a skank, next she's all nice, then she's got a split second fuse_. Knuckles's heart began to pound as he sat back down on the stool. All of a sudden, he started to stamp his feet at the rush of energy that overtook him with the coffee. The caffeine-naive Knuckles had just been introduced to coffee. Rouge came in with the suit to find Knuckles jittering at the table.

"What the hell did you put in this stuff? Are you trying to drug me every which way?" Knuckles asked, beginning to anger.

"No, that's the caffeine," Rouge replied.

"Well, I wanted to be awake, not this awake," Knuckles replied.

"Well, you won't be so hyper, this'll wear off in an hour... I hope..." Rouge replied. Knuckles eyes widened.

"You HOPE?"

"Hey, caffeine won't kill you from just one cup of coffee. You've just never had it before," she said as she half-assedly reassured him. "Now, here's the suit. You're going to have to be quick in the shower, it's already 4:15, so we have 45 minutes to get ready."

"Alright..." Knuckles replied as he took the suit from Rouge, still looking fresh in wrappings from the dry cleaners. "Hey, where's that guest bathroom?" Knuckles asked as he stood beside three doors at the end of the kitchen, the wall perpendicular yet adjacent to the wall that separated Rouge's room from the kitchen.

"It's the one on the left," she told him.

"Thanks," he told her quickly as he stepped inside, locked the door behind him, and undressed quickly. He opened the shower curtain to see if this was a complicated shower to run like the ones in hotel rooms. Nope, this one was simple, thank goodness. Knuckles quickly turned on the water, and set it to lukewarm. He bathed himself quickly. _No wonder she said she's not a morning person, she hasn't flirted with me or called me Knuxie all day._ He was at least glad about that. He shampooed and rinsed. He then shut the water off once all of the suds were off his body. He then realized something. He'd forgotten a towel. _Oh, shit_, he thought to himself.

Knuckles carefully stepped out of the shower, soaking wet, onto the tile, trying to avoid slipping. Nope, that wasn't going to work. He slipped right over onto his face.

BOOM!

"What was that?" Rouge asked loudly from the other room.

"Oh, nothing, nothing," Knuckles stalled as he attempted to stand, this time successfully doing so. He spied a small cabinet out of the corner of his eye.

_Bingo!_ he thought as he stepped over to open it. Nope, no towels there. He was really screwed. "Uh, Rouge..." he called out embarrassingly.

"Yes, Knuxie?" she answered. There was that name again. Hey, it was good while it had lasted, her not saying his name.

"Um... uh... I... kinda..." he began embarrassingly.

"What?" she asked, this time much closer, as if directly on the other side of the door. Knuckle's stomach lurched. There he was, naked, and on the other side, Rouge. _This is not good..._ Knuckles thought to himself.

"Um, I don't have a towel. Can you get me one?" he asked.

"I already have one, I noticed you had forgotten one," she replied.

"Oh, thanks." Knuckles replied.

"But, you're going to have to open up first..." Rouge told him in her trademark sensual tone.

"No way!" Knuckles protested.

"But how else am I going to give you the towel?"

"Just slip it under the door."

"As if," she replied with a giggle. Knuckles stepped behind the door.

"Alright, he replied as he pulled it open. He the covered himself strategically with the door, staying close behind it, so Rouge could not see him in the nude.

"Oh, Knuxie. I love it when you're funny," she replied. She threw the towel into the bathroom and shut the door. Knuckles exhaled deeply, quickly relocking the door. He dried himself off, then mopped up the water he'd had on the floor. He then discarded it and the clothes he wore in the far corner of the bathroom, tossing them over. He then began his attempt to change into the suit.

_Now how the hell am I going to put this on?_, he asked himself. He found that it was pretty much straight forward. He slipped on the pants. Not wanting to wear his old underwear, and having no new ones, he embarrassingly decided to go commando. He then put on the white dress shirt underneath, buttoning it up as to have the right button to the corresponding hole. He then put on the suit jacket fairly easy, simply slipping into it and buttoning it. It fit him surprisingly well, it was just the right size. He slipped into the black dress shoes that were given to him by Rouge to accompany the charcoal-gray suit. He then remembered to tuck the white dress shirt into the pants. He then saw the last item of clothing left of the suit for him to change into. The tie. He decided to ignore it, figuring it wasn't required. Leaving it on the bathroom floor, he walked out of the bathroom.

Rouge was already dressed in a feminine type of suit, having discarded her breastplate. She wore all black with a bright pink undershirt. He raised an eyebrow as he came over to the couch, where she was sitting.

"Hm, you look nice," Knuckles told her in a half-assed complimentary tone, with just a hint of sarcasm. It was nice she had discarded her plate, though. She giggled, as she was about to make another "Knuxie" statement, to mess with his head again.

"You look dashing, Knux-" she stopped abruptly. "Hang on, where's the tie?" she asked him.

"Why?" he asked.

"Um, it's a business meeting. You need a tie," she told him.

"No I don't," he scoffed.

"Um, you've obviously never been in a meeting before. You need a tie, go put it on," she commanded him.

"But I don't know how to..." Knuckles replied.

"What, your dad never told you how to tie a tie? All men learn from their fathers," she told him.

"Well, my dad never thought that I'd be attending a business meeting with the government about the destruction of Angel Island by giant freak spiders!" he shouted in reply.

"For Chrissakes, just go get the tie!" Rouge yelled. Knuckles complied, walking to the bathroom to grab the tie. He returned to the couch.

"You're lucky I know how to tie a tie. Now here," she told him as she positioned herself behind Knuckles. "Now hand me the tie." Knuckles did so.

"How the hell do you- ah!" Knuckles was cut short by the brief strangluation Rouge had imposed on him with the tie.

"Again, none of your business," she replied as she began to tie the tie. Knuckles hated things around his neck, and the fact that Rouge was tying something around it made him feel like a noose would almost be better than this at the moment, especially when she had control. His heart pounded, and blood shot through his arteries and veins. This wasn't going to be a good day.

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Knuckles and Rouge walked in the dark parking lot, as the sun began to give it's first blue light over the horizon and the harbor. Rouge lead the way at a brisk pace.

"Now, remember. You let me do the talking at this thing. You talk when I tell you to," Rouge said.

"Alright," Knuckles replied, rolling his eyes. He looked up at the night sky, breathing the musky morning air of the city. There weren't as many stars in the sky as there were on Angel Island. The lights of the city drowned them out. He looked back to Rouge, who was stopping behind a car in the lot a ways ahead.

"Hurry up, slowpoke!" she shouted. He jogged briefly to catch up with her. Rouge pressed the button to the powerlocks of the car, and they unlocked.

"Alright..." Rouge exhaled. Knuckles walked up behind the car.

"So, this is it?" Knuckles asked.

"Yup." Rouge replied.

"Wow..." Knuckles exhaled. The car was a black 2003 Ford Focus SE. Small, but looked like a fairly nice ride, and in good condition as well. The car was rather clean and orderly, he could see. There were a few folders in the back seat, and a Beanie Baby(r)-type animal was perched cutely on the dashboard. It was surprisingly modest for Rouge's tastes. He expected something like a convertible of some kind, or a Cadillac or Ford Mustang. He studied the car. It looked nice in the dim yellow light given off by the streetlights.

"Yea, I know. I wanted something better, but the government isn't exactly paying me the best money," she told him.

"I like it..." Knuckles said.

"Hm... thanks," she said quickly. "Well, Knuxie, hop in," she said as she smirked and winked, using the sensual/cute tone again. Knuckles groaned and rolled his eyes. She burst out laughing.

"Will you please stop doing that?" Knuckles asked disdainfully.

"I can't help it," she told him as she finished with a giggle. "Well, get in."

Knuckles opened the front of the car and sat in the front seat. The car still smelled a bit new, it was evident Rouge tried her hardest to keep it in good condition. As he sat in the seat, his foot bumped up against something plasticy, and it moved. He looked down, and pulled a bottle of vodka out. Rouge hopped in the driver's seat and inserted the keys in the ignition. He looked over at her as she started the car, holding up the bottle.

"More painkillers, I see?" he asked her.

"Nah," she replied. "They can be any kind of medicine you want it to be," she winked. Knuckles felt very uncomfortable, all of a sudden.

"Do I want to know what's been going on in this car?" Knuckles asked as she pulled out of the space in the lot in reverse, and then put the car in drive and began to pull out of the lot.

"Again, none of your business," Rouge told him.

"Whatever," Knuckles replied as he slumped back into the seat and set the vodka back onto the floorboard. He then put on his seatbelt. Rouge turned out of the exit of the lot.

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The ride went smoothly for 15 minutes. Rouge and Knuckles talked from time to time, discussing the meeting setting, the spiders, reviewing their accounts of what had happened, and they made sure they had the tape with them.

"Man, the city looks so pretty at night," Rouge commented in a dreamy manner, as if out of the blue.

"It is something else," Knuckles replied, somewhat out of wonder. He stared up at the tall buildings out of the window. He could see no stars. The sky had a beautiful pink tint with the reflection of the lights. He had never seen anything like this before. Who would have thought that he would be riding in the middle of a dark city at roughly 5:00 in the morning in Rouge the Bat's 2003 Ford Focus SE? Man, life had changed fast.

His thoughts were quickly interrupted. The car lurched forward, and a horn blared.

"Mother of!..." Knuckles shouted. "What was that for?"

"Stupid idiot isn't moving, nor are any of the rest of them!" Rouge replied at the constant stream of red taillights ahead. She blared her horn. "I told you the traffic was horrendous."

"This early in the morning?" Knuckles asked.

"Yea. But this isn't normal," Rouge replied.

"For a while I was wondering why the hell this meeting was scheduled so early. I thought it was to avoid traffic, now I'm starting to wonder again." Knuckles told him.

"Well, we're stuck here!" Rouge said in exasperation as she threw her hands up. "And for God knows how long!"

"It had better not be long," Knuckles replied.

"You've got that right," Rouge replied.

"No, it had really better not be long," told her as he stamped his foot against the floorboard. "I've really gotta pee."

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XD. Yea, that was the worst chapter so far. I know, I'm way out of character. I'm probably off on people's locations as well, and a few names. I haven't seen the show, forgive me. And the last game I got was Sonic Heroes. Anyway, thanks for reading. This really sucks, I know, so thanks to the few who read and comment. PLEASE REVIEW. Also, my premature congratulations to Senator McCain, soon to be President McCain. I gave up on Obama a while ago (but I did trash a McCain yard sign with my bike today, that was pretty funny. XD). Also, don't forget to set your clocks back one hour in the U.S. if you have not done so. Again, please, PLEASE review. Hopefully November won't be slow for me like October. Check you guys later.


	5. The Fall of Mobius

Well, I don't know. I just don't know. It's been seven months since I have updated this story. Now that I look back on it, it was a very good story. And now, I don't know if I can continue it. Mean, Knouge has been out of my head for a while, and I'm scared to try to continue this story from where I left off, for fear it'll turn out bad like another story I tried that with. Anyway, I had something written for this, but in the end, I ended up throwing it all out the window. I don't know if this will work, I sure hope it does, otherwise I'm screwed. So, here is chapter five. Enjoy!

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**Blood Of The Dragon**

Chapter Five

The traffic jam continued for a good while. Time seemed to crawl by exasperatingly slow. One minute... two minutes... three minutes... The sun began to rise behind the horizon, beginning to bring vague blue light to the East sky, showing behind the hills surrounding the bay and harbor to one side. Though it seemed like hours, only five minutes had gone by.

"Dammit, what the hell is going on up there?" Knuckles asked in frustration.

"I don't know," Rouge replied. "Probably an accident of some kind, happens every once in a while when some dumb blonde runs a red light or hits a guardrail."

"Shh!" he shouted. The car fell dead silent. A small hissing noise could be heard, along with a continual squishing noise, barely audible at intervals between the blare of car horns. "Hear that? The hissing?"

"Yea..." Rouge replied.

"What is that?" Knuckles asked as he looked around, then up. It wasn't long before a large, hairy leg crushed the car next to them, sending sparks flying. Sudden, terrified screams could be heard. More legs touched down, encircling the car. Outside, the silhouettes of giant spiders dropped from the sky. Rouge froze in fear.

"Oh my God!" she screamed.

"Shh..." Knuckles whispered loudly. "Don't say a fucking word, or they'll find us. We need to be quiet."

How did they know about us? Did they come looking for us?" she asked in a whisper.

"How the hell would they know?" Knuckles replied. "We were alone there, I could swear. There's no way those things could have hidden anywhere to watch us." They heard something on the roof of the car.

"What the?..." they simultaneously asked. The sound of crushing steel continued. They could see the cars around them becoming surrounded by the familiar turquoise webs, oozing from the spiders' spinners. The webs were surrounding the bodies of the cars like nooses, being drawn tighter. The cars were starting to be crushed. Suddenly, a car was hoisted into the air by one of the spider's webs and was thrown to the side into a building, exploding in a ball of fire. The car doors of everyone around them seemed to open almost simultaneously. Drivers and passengers abandoned their vehicles, screaming hysterically as pandemonium ensued. Spiders began to throw around more cars causing explosions and shrapnel to rain down on the city. Mobius was under attack.

"Shit! We need to get out of here!" Knuckles shouted.

Rouge silently complied. They tried at their car doors, but neither would open. Their car's exterior then began to be crushed, the outside in the grasp of one of the spiders' webs.

"Dammit!" Knuckles shouted. "Looks like we're going to have to use the sunroof." Rouge looked at him.

"What sunroof?" she asked. Knuckles quickly punched a hole in the roof. He grabbed it and tore it open so it would be wide enough to fit both of them through it.

"That one, now let's go!" Knuckles shouted.

"You idiot! You made a hole in my CAR!" Rouge shouted at the top of her lungs, clearly extremely pissed. But it wasn't long before the car started to get tightly squeezed in the spider's web, making the center of the car smaller by the second.

"Hurry, you go first!" Knuckles shouted. Rouge took off her seat belt and scrambled over to the next seat, stepping on Knuckles's head in order to climb out of the hole. "Ow! Thanks!" he shouted as she stepped onto the roof precariously. He himself hurried behind her, pulling himself out of the car in one large movement of his arms. He jumped on Rouge's back, and they flew off quickly, barely escaping as their car was swept away into the side of a building by one of the webs of the spiders.

"Where do we go now?" Knuckles asked, hanging on tightly, for fear that he'd lose it and fall into the pavement below.

"GUN!" Rouge shouted. "If the government's got any kind of sanity, they'll be a safe place."

"Why aren't they on it right now?" Knuckles asked. His answer was met with the roar of fighter jets overhead, the sheer volume of the engines nearly blowing him off of Rouge.

"Hang on!" Rouge shouted as she made a sharp left bank maneuver. Knuckles gripped and squeezed onto her for all of his worth. It was one bank after another as they dodged building after building after building. They flew around several buildings, dodging them successfully. But ahead, new spiders were dropping from the sky. Bigger ones, much bigger. Taller than the shorter buildings. _Eight Legged Freaks_ style tarantulas dropped from a spaceship, barely visible in the dim light of dawn.

"Shit!" Knuckles shouted. "Here comes more of them!"

"We're almost there!" Rouge shouted. The spiders quickly went to work, destroying everything they could. Explosions littered the city, complimented with the screams of terrified citizens as the sounds of chaos filled the air. The sky finally began to give way to the light of a red dawn.

"We had better get there soon, or we're toast!" Knuckles shouted.

"There it is, up ahead!" Rouge replied as she motioned to the skyscraper ahead. An explosion radiated from the side of the building. A spider then proceeded to make it's way to block the front of the building.

"Oh, fuck!" Knuckles shouted. "Now how do we get in?"

"Hang on!" Rouge shouted as she swooped in quickly, plunging at an angle. She then skillfully leveled out, and she swooped in directly underneath the spider's abdomen. The spider didn't take any notice. They latched to the building. Knuckles carefully reached around Rouge to punch in the sturdy plexiglass window. He then hung on to Rouge as they somersaulted into the building, landing in an office room behind a desk.

"Ah!" Knuckles groaned as he staggered up from the floor, wincing in pain. "I think I cut myself on the glass."

"Speak for yourself," Rouge replied, placing her hand on her back. "I landed on this person's chair."

"OK, now what?" Knuckles asked. Without missing a beat, the interior wall nearest them forcefully blew out in a wall of fire. They were thrown back to the other wall, slammed up against it by the sheer force of the explosion. They quickly stumbled up. "I suggest we get the fuck out of here!" Knuckles shouted.

"Yeah!" Rouge shouted. They quickly ran to the door. They heard the hiss of the spider behind them. Knuckles giggled the doorknob, but the door wouldn't open.

"Dammit! The lock's jammed!" Knuckles shouted in frustration, trying to lock and unlock the door. Rouge let out a scream, and Knuckles spun around to see the eight, dog-like eyes of the spider staring into the window at them. Knuckles kicked the door open.

"Screw it! Now let's go!" he shouted. They ran through the doorway, and sprinted down the hallway. They turned into another hallway. Then another one. They kept running, and running, and running. They ran blindly through the maze of hallways.

"Alright, we need to find an elevator. Where is one?" Knuckles asked as they continued running. He was soon met with his answer as he slammed into a set of steel doors.

"Right... there..." Rouge replied as her palm met her face. Knuckles pressed the down button. When the elevator didn't come, he pressed it again.

"Come on, come on!" he shouted as he began to push it frantically. Still, the elevator didn't come. Knuckles was getting mad. "Oh, fuck this!" he shouted as he swung to punch the doors open. The doors opened as he blindly pulled back and he fell forward into the elevator as he followed through. Rouge followed him inside and pressed the Door Close button and pulled him in before the doors shut on his legs. The elevator began to make it's way to the ground floor.

"You really need to keep your cool in these kinds of situations," Rouge advised him.

"I AM keeping my cool!" he shouted.

"Whatever," Rouge replied.

"So what are we doing now?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, as far as I know we're going to a meeting in conference room 6C, which is on the ground floor," Rouge replied.

"You're still thinking of the meeing at a time like this? The city's been attacked by giant spiders!" Knuckles replied.

"Well, this is the government after all," Rouge replied. Knuckles rolled his eyes and began to speak. Just then, the elevator jerked to a stop.

"Oh great, what now?" Knuckles asked. A faint rumbling began, which slowly grew louder.

"What is that?" Rouge asked. Knuckles's eyes shot open in fear.

"OH SHIT!" he shouted as he knelt down and threw a punch at the floor of the elevator, putting his fist through several inches of steel. Rouge's eyes widened and her jaw dropped at his strength as he proceeded to tear the floor open in one quick rip, like it was paper. "Come on, we gotta get out of here!" he shouted.

"How?-" Rouge asked.

"Jump!" Knuckles shouted as he motioned to the hole in the floor.

"Are you crazy!?" Rouge yelled.

"Just do it! Hover once you're through the hole, now hurry!" Knuckles shouted. Rouge lowered herself through the hole and spread her wings. "OK, I'm coming down!" Knuckles shouted as he lowered himself through and onto Rouge's back. "Now, hurry!" Knuckles shouted as the rumbling became deafening.

"Hang on!" Rouge shouted as she put herself in a dive and shot down the long elevator shaft. Debris began to rain down on them as the roar grew louder and louder, approaching faster and faster. Knuckles looked up and saw the floors above them falling down, and the elevator following.

"Find a floor to get off, hurry!" Knuckles shouted as they neared the bottom of the shaft. Rouge levelled out at a set of closed doors, and Knuckles punched them, causing a large hole directly in the center. He grabbed the doors and forced them backwards, the doors breaking and falling to the bottom of the shaft. Rouge swooped through the hole. They found themselves in another small corridor, with a lit EXIT sign at one end.

"Come on!" Knuckles shouted as they sprinted for their lives toward the exit sign. The roar got louder and louder as the sounds of crushing and bending steel got closer and closer. They barely reached the door as they slammed through it and ran onto the fire escape. Knuckles again hopped on her back and without thinking they jumped over the railing and flew away, dodging huge chunks of debris and the building that was across the street. They grabbed onto a railing and jumped over onto another fire escape and looked back to see the G.U.N building collapsing into a pile of dust and twisted metal.

"Oh my God..." Rouge gasped. Knuckles bowed his head. Hundreds were dead. But there was no time yet for sadness as a spider leg crushed the debris pile. Rouge and Knuckles looked up to see a spider glaring at them, it leaned in and opened its fangs.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Rouge screamed. "IT'S GOING TO EAT US!"

"I DON'T THINK SO!" Knuckles shouted as he tore off the remainder of the steel fire escape that wasn't attached to it's stairs or the part they were standing on and lifted it in the air and shoved it into the spider's mouth. The spider let out a sickening squeal as Knuckles drove it through the spider's squishy body and up through the top of it's head. The spider fell backward, it's giant hairy legs stuck upward. Rouge stood there amazed as Knuckles seethed through his teeth, breathing in and out. A voice shouted to them.

"Knuckles! That was quite a show!" Sonic shouted from a hovercraft floating along the edge of the building on the far corner. Tails popped up into view.

"Hi Knuckles! Hi Rouge!", the fox shouted.

"SONIC!" Knuckles shouted, about ready to smash something else. Rouge restrained him.

"Easy, easy, before you kill yourself," she told him. She shouted over to the hovercraft. "How did you know that we'd be here?"

"Well, we figured you guys'd be around somewhere, we were busy shooting the spiders," Sonic said as he brandished what looked to be a large taser. "Looks like Knuckles got the last one."

"Yeah, Knuckles!" Tails shouted.

"Well, we need a small favor, you two," Rouge yelled.

"What's that?" Sonic inquired.

"Can you help get us down?"

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OK, this chapter was over twice as long originally, but I decided to cut it in half because it would have been unbearably long. I still am extremely uncertain about this chapter, so I hope that you all liked it. Thank you for reading. Please review to let me know how I did, I'm really scared. Thanks!


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